The Polynesian Voyaging Society is putting a pause on the Moananuiākea Voyage to bring Hōkūleʻa home.
In the wake of the devastating fires on Maui, PVS announced the double-hulled canoe will temporarily return to Hawaiʻi from San Diego in late December.
Polynesian Voyaging Society CEO and Pwo Navigator Nainoa Thompson said the decision to bring Hōkūleʻa home to Hawaiʻi following the West Maui wildfires was an instinctual one.
“The level of hurt that’s happening in our home is something I can’t comprehend. All I know is that we gotta come home because of it,” Thompson said.
Hōkūleʻa and her crew are currently in San Francisco for leg seven of the four-year Moananuiākea Voyage. Thompson said once hurricane season dies down, Hōkūleʻa will head home.
“Probably in December, instead of us heading out to Mexico and Central America and South America, we’re just going to turn west from San Diego and go 2,400 miles to Hōkūleʻa’s home and our home,” Thompson said. “Simply because we need to and simply because it’s the right thing to do.”
The decision to return home was not a symbolic one. Thompson said Lāhainā is a voyaging powerhouse and an integral part of the ʻohana waʻa, or voyaging family.
“Canoes were built there, they were launched there. And over the years great captains have come from that place Abraham Snake ʻĀʻī and Archie Kalepa, Timi Gilliom. And great navigators. The great Pwo navigator Kālepa Baybayan and his daughter Kalā [Baybayan Tanaka],” Thompson explained.
“And so Hōkūleʻa needs to come home because I believe the family is going to need to canoe and the canoe is going to need the family.”
Hōkūleʻa’s homecoming was not only based on the need to have a presence in the wake of the wildfires but to protect the canoe and her crew from climate uncertainty.
“We don't know what the risk is going to be anymore. The heat in the ocean, especially near the equatorial waters where we live, is really a fuel for big storms, primarily hurricanes,” Thompson said. “So we don’t know whether voyaging in that kind of condition of hot Earth plus El Niño is even safe.”
Hōkūleʻa’s trip home in December will simply put a pause on the Moananuiākea Voyage.
“So we’re not so sure about the actual timeline, but we are going to complete Moananuiākea because we must. The Moananuiākea Voyage is designed exactly to become this catalyst for people and learning so that we can take better care of the Earth,” Thompson said. “But for now, we’re coming home.”
Hōkūleʻa's Bay Area visit
More than 3,000 people welcomed Hōkūleʻa and her crew as she sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Area Sunday.
The sail from Sausalito to San Francisco may not have been a particularly long one for Hōkūleʻa and her crew, but it was a scenic one — especially compared to their arrival into Sausalito a week before.
"It was the middle of the night and very very dark and even still we had folks who had come out from the bridge, from the park, and so we really wanted to make sure we had that opportunity to enjoy this beautiful, absolutely clear day, sunny with a beautiful bay," Hōkūleʻa watch captain Lehua Kamalu explained.
Hōkūleʻa has spent the last three months sailing down the coast from Alaska. Kamalu said she finds sailing along the coast more challenging than those long open ocean legs. She said interacting with the ocean changes when you're so close to features like rocks and land.
"A lot of attention paid to the tidal range, what time of days that we were able to leave and depart and arrive again. How fast the currents have been moving in these areas," she said.
"So it's really good because I think we can always remember as the ocean always teaches us to be humble and have so many opportunities to learn about a new space."
San Francisco is one of more than 300 planned port stops along the Moananuiākea Voyage. The voyage is a global educational campaign to underscore the importance of caring for our oceans. Kamalu said it’s a message that’s resonated with port communities along the way.
"I think it's one that they come to the table with a matching story in their own culture and their own language and their own way. Because caring for this place starts off with this recognition," she said.
"These themes already exist and seeing another community out there that thinks that this is actually a priority and also recognizes that urgent need for it has been I would say consistent throughout our communities."
Hōkūleʻa will be docked at Hyde Street Harbor for canoe tours through Oct. 1.
Here are the upcoming California port visits, subject to change:
- Oct. 1 - Half Moon Bay
- Oct. 5 - Monterey Bay
- Oct. 11 - Morro Bay
- Oct. 17 - Ventura
- Oct. 24 - Los Angeles
- Oct. 30 - Newport Beach
- Nov. 4 - Dana Point
- Nov. 8 - San Diego
Take a look at HPR's past coverage of Hōkūleʻa:
